Forrest Mobley, an Aerospace Engineering major from 2020, currently works for Boeing. In this episode, he shares fond memories of learning how to make things work in the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Lab, how he organizes his notes for sharing with colleagues, and the importance of writing succinctly.
Episode Transcript
[Music fades in]
Abigail
Hello, everybody and welcome back to another episode of What's the Word Eagle Alumni Spotlights Podcast. I'm your host Abby. And today we have an exciFng episode with you today we're joined with Forrest Mobley and Forrest, why don't you give us a liIle bit of background about yourself?
Forrest
Sure. I graduated from Embry Riddle in spring of 2020. From there, I went to grad school at the University of Tennessee for two years and got my master's in aerospace engineering from there. Now, I work with Boeing in their rotorcraR division doing CFD for RotorcraR.
Abigail
Oh, wow, that's awesome. And do you have a favorite memory from your Fme being at Embry Riddle that you'd like to share with us?
Forrest
Let's see here. Yeah, I've got a memory. I worked in Dr. Hishibada's CFD lab, and I remember one day I was working on geXng some CFD soRware running and I was really new to it. This is like my first first month that I was in there anything kind of all blurs together but I finally got the soRware working. Haha. And you know the very simple simulaFon but it was my first one and it was just really exciFng seeing that it was working and I finally made some progress.
Abigail
Oh, I bet it was very exciFng, kind of to see it all come together and everything. Now for people who aren't maybe engineers what is the CFD lab?
Forrest
The CFD lab is an area where students can get their hands on computaFonal fluid dynamics or CFD soRware which is used to simulate fluid flow. So anything your heart desires when it comes to learning more about fluid flow, CFD is one of the best tools for that, you know, obviously we can use wind tunnels, but those are expensive. And they take up Fme, whereas CFD is a lot more accessible. And that's one of the reasons why I guess it was easy for me to step into it.
Abigail
Okay, that sounds like a very interesFng medium to work with.
Forrest
Yeah, it definitely is.
Abigail
Now, were you able to take any of that experience you gained working from the CFD lab at Embry Riddle and take it into your current job?
Forrest
Yes. It's what I do now. I am a CFD engineer with Boeing.
Abigail
Oh, so that worked out really well actually. And do you have a favorite part of your current job at Boeing that you'd like to share with us?
Forrest
My favorite part of my current job. So my job is to kind of dig deep into the details when surprises come up when it comes to engineering rotorcraR, so, I'm not really hands on with actually making like decisions when it comes to an aircraR design. But when something unexpected comes up in the performance of an aircraR, usually one of the best tools we have to dig into it is CFD, one because it's relaFvely fast and two, it's a lot safer than doing flight tesFng. So that's that's been really cool to dig into that I guess.
Abigail
Oh, I see. That sounds very intriguing. And I'm assuming a lot of numbers and math goes into doing something like that?
Forrest
Yea, but the computer does it. Really it's the engineers job is to understand the seXngs and what they do. So thankfully, I don't have to, you know, perform integrals all day that would be horrible.
Abigail
Yeah, that does sound horrible. Haha And now switching over to wriFng are you able to incorporate wriFng into your job alot?
Forrest
Yeah, I do a lot of wriFng. Most of us just note taking. There's a lot of details. I can't remember everything. And when we kind of get to an end of a project, usually it's good to write up a memo or usually something an internal document that can be used for later reference by someone else.
Abigail
Okay, okay. And do you have a specific type of note taking that you do such as Cornell notes, or do you kind of make your own kind of notes?
Forrest
We use one note at Boeing. And there's some things I don't like about it. But one thing that I do like about it is it's very easy to collaborate with my fellow engineers. And I think if I had my own choice of notetaking style, I wouldn't use OneNote just use like a Word document or something like that, but it works and it's flexible enough that you know, we can get the job done. So it's, I think I'm sFll figuring my notes out when it comes to work. There's there's sFll messy, haha, I need to figure it out. But you know, those things come with Fme.
Abigail
Oh, right, right. Of course. Everything has to be finely tuned with Fme and everything like that. Now, have you noFced any big differences or similariFes between wriFng you've done at Embry Riddle and wriFng you're doing in the workplace?
Forrest
A lot of the wriFng I did in college was for like, research. I wrote a few papers when I was in grad school, you know, wriFng my thesis. Those are definitely different than the types of wriFng I do now because now I need to be a lot more succinct. I need to be a lot short winded, I guess is a good way of puXng it. We don't really have Fme to read, you know, 100 page document on one project. So it's, it's beIer to get things compacted as much as possible.
Abigail
Okay. And are you able to incorporate pictures into the wriFng you do? Or is it mostly just wriFng strictly?
Forrest
Less pictures than I would have thought going into this job. But yeah, I do include pictures. It's a lot of just plots of you know, thrust and power and kind of where our values sit for a parFcular simulaFon versus you know, what we've seen in the past. We do a lot of comparison in that way. So it's less figures than I would have thought but sFll.
Abigail
Okay, I gotcha. That sounds like a good raFo you have going between pictures and wording and everything. And so that leads me right into my last quesFon for you today, Forrest. Do you have any advice you'd like to give our current Eagles?
Forrest
I would just say keep digging into new things that interest you. I never thought coming into Embry Riddle that I would be where I am now. I originally wanted to get into rocketry and aerospace, but the opportuniFes that I was given through pure chance really kind of guided me to where I where I am now. And it's where I where I want to be. So yeah, so those opportuniFes, just keep your eyes open for them and take them college is a great Fme to do that. Because you can always if you don't like it, you can back out and go do something else and if you do like it, you can really dig into it, especially at Embry Riddle.
Abigail
And that is great advice especially for all of our current Eagles here at Embry Riddle. Be sure to get into all those clubs and opportuniFes that Embry Riddle has to offer. But now we'd like to give a big thank you to Forrest for being with us on our podcast today.
Forrest
Yea. Thank you for having me.
Abigail
And that wraps up this week's episode of What's the Word Eagle Alumni Spotlights Podcast. I'm your host Abby and be sure to stay tuned for more episodes to come.
[Music fades in]
Amelia
This podcast is supported by the Department of HumaniFes and CommunicaFon at Embry- Riddle AeronauFcal University in PrescoI, Arizona. Abigail Bradberry is our host MaIhew Haslam is our department chair. And I'm Amelia Chesley. Assistant Professor of professional wriFng the intro and outro music is Wanderer by Aylex. Find us on SpoFfy or on YouTube. And reach out if you are a PrescoI campus alum. We'd love to feature you in a future episode.
[Music fades out}